USSR: Nuclear Weapons

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Review - The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus

Robert J. Bunker\u27s review of Jennifer L. Hesterman\u27s book, The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus: An Alliance of International Drug Cartels, Organized Crime and Terror Groups, CRC Press 2013

The Mexican Cartel Debate: As Viewed Through Five Divergent Fields of Security Studies

The Mexican cartel debate is becoming increasingly more important to U.S. national security, however, it is also becoming ever more confused, heated, and at times downright nasty, with little agreement about what is taking place in Mexico or in other regions of the Americas, such as Guatemala, Honduras, and even this side of the U.S. border. To shed some light on this critical debate—a debate we need to have now and not later— it is the contention of this author that, since the Mexican cartel phenomena is being looked at by scholars from divergent fields of security studies and since each field of study brings with it its own key assumptions and concerns, preferred responses, terminology, works, and authors, those analyzing the problem are often talking at cross-purposes which is unproductive. Additionally, dissention among those within each individual field of study about the threat the cartels represent—the divergences among those who study insurgencies as but one important example— adds another layer of confusion to this debate

Adversary Weaponry to 2025

This chapter will provide an overview of adversary weaponry that will be utilized by criminals and opposing forces (OPFORs) which U.S. law enforcement personnel may encounter domestically. The projected time frame will cover the futures period from 2009 through 2025. Criminal weaponry use will be analyzed using a criminal threat continuum that starts with minimal threats and increases in severity. OPFOR weaponry use will be analyzed using a similar continuum. It should be noted that OPFOR threats, like criminal threats, are illicit in nature and derived from individuals and groups that can be designated as engaging in criminal behavior or are criminal organizations. The fundamental difference between these threat continuums (See Fig. 1) are that they are based on the severity of threat derived from intent. Criminals will not typically seek to engage U.S. law enforcement directly or take actions that can be viewed as engaging in private warfare. OPFOR groups intentionally engage in private warfare and actively seek to engage U.S. law enforcement personnel in direct firefights or indirectly by means of ambushes and the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) designed to maim and kill them. Prior to this treatment of adversary weaponry use, however, a short overview of weaponry targeting and effects will be provided along with an overview of the weaponry pool available to law enforcement adversaries. This overview of the weaponry pool will incorporate projections concerning the impact advances in the sciences will have on weaponry evolution and its operational use

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

This is an encyclopedia article